Public companies are required to observe strict compliance to the continuing disclosure requirements of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) and make available and accessible the material non-public information through the submission of structured and unstructured disclosures that would enable investors to evaluate whether or not to invest in securities. To ensure that information asymmetry between the company insiders such as directors, managers and shareholders and company outsiders such as lenders, investors and customers would be mitigated if not eliminated, the material non-public information that can have a material impact on the operating and financial performance of public companies should be included in the disclosure requirements. The basic disclosure requirements on public companies are the submission of an annual report within 105 days after the end of the fiscal year and the quarterly reports within 45 days after the end of every quarter of the fiscal year. But these basic disclosure requirements are not basic for some public companies that cannot submit the periodic reports due to a broad range of unacceptable excuses that they blame on systematic risk or risk inherent to the market and unsystematic risk or risk specific to the company. One of the public companies whose shares were suspended from trading for failure to submit an annual report for the fiscal year ended 30 September 2021 is Bogo-Medellin Milling Company Inc (BMM). BMM was incorporated on 4 June 1928 to mill and manufacture raw sugar, to develop and nurture agricultural lands, and to harvest and market agricultural products. Before the submission of an annual report within 105 days after the end of the fiscal year lapses BMM had requested PSE for an extension of the filing deadline as its external auditors were in the process of reviewing the disclosure requirements to ensure that the financial statements are in accordance with the revisions and amendments to the reporting standards. How can the external auditors of the 272 listed companies in the PSE comply with the revisions and amendments to the reporting standards while the external auditors of BMM cannot? We believe that the basic disclosure requirements on public companies to submit an annual report within 105 days after the end of the fiscal year is more than enough for external auditors to comply with the revisions and amendments to the reporting standards. An argument to the contrary would be considered as a blatant excuse to conceal the worsening business operations and financial performance of BMM.
